Gov. Bob McDonnell appointed on Monday Jack G. Travelstead as the commissioner of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Travelstead has been deputy commissioner of the VMRC since 2006, said a spokesman for the governor. He has served with the VMRC since 1981 and has been chief of the Fisheries Management Division since 1984. Travelstead succeeds Steven G. Bowman, who retired earlier this year. He was appointed the acting commissioner by Gov. McDonnell on March 22, 2012.

Experts still aren't sure what killed thousands of dead menhaden that local fishermen reported floating in a long line near the northern stretch of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel over the weekend. And they say they might never know. The state Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday that water samples turned up nothing irregular, nor were there signs of a fish disease. Meanwhile, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission said no commercial fishing operation reported a net spill.

— The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday agreed to extend oyster dredging in the lower James River through February after hearing from watermen who wanted more time. Last month, watermen had asked the commission to allow dredging in the James until March 31, presenting a petition with about 100 signatures. Dredging is the practice of gathering oysters by dragging a steel basket across the bottom of the river or bay. The waterman said they deserved more time because cold, gusty weather in December kept them sidelined.

A weak female blue crab population, continued predator infiltration and a need to conserve juvenile blue crab growth have prompted members of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to move forward with staff recommendations to reduce the female blue crab harvest by 10 percent. The commissioners Tuesday voted 4-2 to adopt new regulation measures that would limit the number of blue crabs being harvested in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay. Members James D. Close and S. Lynn Hayne voted against the proposed measures.

The Daily Press editorial "Bay blues" (Sept. 26) is correct that crabs are not the real disaster. The disaster is the state of the waters in general: the Chesapeake Bay, American rivers or the deep ocean. Remember that the Congress, that wise body, declared U.S. waters would be fishable and swimmable by 1988? What a joke. The editorial, however, unfairly blames the Virginia Marine Resources Commission for the collapse of the crab fishery. In 1995, the VMRC staff brought to the commission's attention a serious decline in the crab population.

A weak female blue crab population, continued predator infiltration and a need to conserve juvenile blue crab growth have prompted members of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to move forward with staff recommendations to reduce the female blue crab harvest by 10 percent. The commissioners Tuesday voted 4-2 to adopt new regulation measures that would limit the number of blue crabs being harvested in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay. Members James D. Close and S. Lynn Hayne voted against the proposed measures.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission has been forced into some tough fisheries management decisions by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Those choices are being forced under provisions of the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act of 1993. Implementing the ASMFC's management plans for flounder and gray trout will be the main task of the VMRC during 1994. Before the VMRC approved the public hearing process for flounder regulations Tuesday, commission member George S. Forrest of Poquoson made it clear that he thought the public should not hold the VMRC responsible for the actions it is being forced to carry out. "We sit here and have these decisions that we have to improve these things and the public thinks we are doing it," Forrest said.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted Tuesday to establish Virginia's first flounder season from May 1 until Oct. 31 this year and set an eight-fish limit for recreational anglers. The measures go into effect Sunday, meaning there will be no forced interruption in fishing between now and then. The limit marks a two-fish drop from last year. The recreational-size minimum will remain at 14 inches. By approving those measures and others, the VMRC brought its regulations into compliance with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries flounder management plan.

Years of overfishing and a loose framework of rules have put Virginia's blue crab population in a highly vulnerable position, and state officials could take the first steps this week toward an era of stricter regulations designed to protect the species' long-term health. A hurricane or a bad breeding season, combined with the status-quo commercial catch, could be catastrophic for the crab, scientists told the Virginia Marine Resources Commission last month. Blue crabs have flat-lined at their lowest population in at least 60 years, threatening the species' iconic place in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and the source of some of this region's most delectable culinary hallmarks: crab cakes, soft-shell crab, crab dip and she-crab soup.

To prevent the depletion and waste of bluefish, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission set a 10-fish limit on recreational fishermen Tuesday. Also, commercial fishermen will be allowed to haul in no more than 20 percent of the estimated yearly recreational and commercial harvests. The estimate will be figured using totals from the previous three years. About 90 percent of the bluefish caught are brought in by recreational fishermen, said Jack Travelstead, chief of fisheries management for the VMRC.

Just as the sun cast its rays upon a city preparing to take its first breath, the crew of the Miss Nina boat were already at work. "This is the routine," said Ken Diggs Jr., owner and operator of the Poquoson-based Miss Nina boat that was docked at Small Boat Harbor in Newport News' Southeast Community early Wednesday morning. "This is the easy part, the hard part is coming up. " Armed with four boxes of menhaden fish for bait and nearly 30 empty pots, the 26-year-old crab harvester and his first mate, Tim Lindsay Jr., cast off from the boat harbor to where the Nansemond and James rivers converge near Suffolk's Chuckatuck area.

Editor's note: This is part of an everyday series exploring individual line items in state and local budgets. Read the entire series at www.dailypress.com/watchdog . It's in Virginia's budget: $2.2 million for coastal mapping The state spends somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million a year on "coastal lands surveying and mapping. " It's not that the state's coast line changes that much every year. It shifts some, of course, but this is about knowing who's doing what and where along the coastline, Marine Resources Commission spokeswoman Laurie Naismith said.

MATHEWS - Restoring the oyster population has become an essential component in reviving the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Experts say focusing those restoration efforts on a larger scale is the best strategy for ensuring a self-sustaining population that can overcome disease and other environmental threats. A large-scale oyster sanctuary is under construction in the Piankatank River as a part of a project to restore the shellfish to 10 Virginia tributaries by 2025. Gov. Terry McAuliffe visited the site of the oyster reef Friday and announced a $500,000 grant from the Nature Conservancy to support the construction of the sanctuary near Fishing Bay in Middlesex County.

The first day of Virginia's blue crabs fishery season opened on Monday, but cold weather and frigid water is leaving the state's signature crustacean sluggish and not moving around. That means a very slow start to the crabbing season for watermen. Cyndi Speight, operations manager at York River Seafood Co. on the Perrin River near its mouth to the York River, said she doesn't believe blue crabs will be landed until April due to the extended winter the region has been having. "It's kind of hard to project what's going to happen, but we're hoping for a good year," Speight said.

GLOUCESTER - The first day of Virginia's blue crabs fishery season opened on Monday, but cold weather and frigid water is leaving the state's signature crustacean sluggish and not moving around. That means a very slow start to the crabbing season for watermen. Cyndi Speight, operations manager at York River Seafood Co. on the Perrin River near its mouth to the York River, said she doesn't believe blue crabs will be landed until April due to the extended winter the region has been having.

Alan Hogge beat the ice surrounding his boat Thursday with a stick, trying to break it up into chunks as he sat stationary in Deep Creek. For several days, he hasn't been able to get out to harvest oysters before the end of the commercial season on Friday. "We haven't worked but one day this week," said Hogge, 52, of Poquoson, who has been a waterman for most of his life. "I spent three hours cleaning snow off the boat, but you don't get paid for that. " Hogge and other watermen said the Virginia Marine Resources Commission should consider extending the harvest season on the James River because of the icy conditions the past two weeks.

Two property owners in Hampton received the go-ahead to build beachside homes on sand dunes Tuesday, only hours before the state announced it is receiving $1.7 million in federal money to protect Virginia's coasts. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission approved applications Tuesday from two owners of property along Hampton's Malo Beach, north of Buckroe Beach. Both lots are located on primary sand dunes, which are protected under the state's Coastal Primary Sand Dune Protection Act. The VMRC staff advised the board to approve the applications because "the majority of the city's Chesapeake Bay shoreline is already developed and contains similar structures ... attempting to halt development on the few lots remaining would not appear to serve any practical purpose."

Crabbers won't be able to get new licenses in Virginia until at least 2011, after Virginia officials extended a moratorium intended to help protect the worrisome downward trend of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab stock. Capping the number of licensed crabbers controls the fishing pressure on the crab population, which has struggled in the past 15 years but still brings in an estimated $21 million at docksides in Virginia. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission on Tuesday extended the cap on the number of licenses through 2010.